Manage your money

6 September 2019

Staying on top of your finances and making good decisions with your money can be tough while at university.

Managing money is a skill
you can learn and get better at—like any skill, it takes practice and time.

Here’s a few tips on managing your money while you’re a student at Victoria University of Wellington:

1. Book a one-on-one appointment with a Student Finance Adviser, who provide confidential and non-judgemental financial mentoring/budget advisory services to students and can help with a range of needs including developing a budget, checking entitlements, and help with StudyLink.

2. Create a budget to track the money you are earning and the money you are spending. A budget can help you organise your money, feel less stressed and more in control when bills are due. It also allows you to see if you are spending more than you are earning.

3. Don’t forget to include some money for things you enjoy. This will help to avoid overspending or making impulse purchases.

4. Attend a financial wellbeing workshop. These are delivered across the year by the University’s Student Finance Advisers. Workshops are informal, interactive, and give you the opportunity to ask all your questions without fear of judgement. Topics discussed include developing healthy money habits, creating financial goals, how to start saving, and practical tips to get control of your debt.

5. If you have a credit card, loan, or overdraft make sure you have a plan to pay the money back. Do you know how much interest is being charged, what the minimum repayments are and how often you need to be making them?

6. Afterpay is an easy way to spread the cost of a purchase over a few weeks, but needs to be managed carefully. The more Afterpay purchases you make, the more repayments you’ll need to manage. You need to be able to plan your repayments and make sure there’s room for them in your budget.

7. Take a Blackbulllion module. Blackbullion is an online financial learning platform that provides access to a range of money modules that will help you get on track with your budget, savings, tax, managing debt and university finances.